


Sleeping Kings And Queens

by 221BroadwayIron



Category: Chronicles of Narnia (Movies), Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Cute, Fluff, Gen, Peter Pevensie can't sleep, Protective Peter Pevensie, Siblings, neither can anyone else
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:02:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28621476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/221BroadwayIron/pseuds/221BroadwayIron
Summary: “Lucy?” Peter called quietly, pausing at the door’s threshold to scan the room.The bed was empty.----------Or, Unable to sleep, Peter decides to check on his siblings.
Relationships: Edmund Pevensie & Lucy Pevensie & Peter Pevensie & Susan Pevensie
Comments: 10
Kudos: 66





	Sleeping Kings And Queens

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written 8/9/2018
> 
> Enjoy!

High King Peter of Narnia was a great number of things, many of them wonderful and noble indeed, but right now he wasn’t any of those. In fact, he couldn’t be properly called High King at all because the coronation ceremony wasn’t until tomorrow night. No, right now Peter just felt very small in a room and a bed which were quite large and quite dark.

_You had better go to sleep,_ he told himself angrily, _there’s a lot going on tomorrow, and you need to be well-rested and ready. Go to sleep._

He was a little bit frightened at being all alone because he and Edmund had shared ever since his brother was born. The strange room only felt stranger without the little noises and shufflings he had grown accustomed to. But Peter was trying to hide his nervousness, even if it was just from himself and it made him snappish.

_If_ I _can’t sleep,_ he thought finally, knocking his head against the fluffy pillow, _I suppose I’d at least better go make sure the others are._ Quietly, Peter slipped out from between silky sheets and, trying not to look too closely at the shadowy corners, darted over cool stone and into the hall.

Susan’s room was directly across from his. When he cracked open her door, he could see her form lying motionless under the covers. Though her face was turned away from the door, the moonlight which fell across the room from a gap in the curtains illuminated the soft rise and fall of her chest. With an inexplicable feeling of relief and a small smile, Peter gently closed her door.

Edmund was next. He stirred as his door was opened, but otherwise was as quiet as his older sister.

Lastly was Lucy’s room, on the same side of the corridor as Susan’s but farther down than Edmund’s. She had a balcony with a fantastic view of the sea beyond Cair Paravel. Her door was partially open, unlike the others, and there was the hint of a draft coming from it. Uneasiness settled in the base of Peter’s stomach as the calm feeling brought by seeing his siblings asleep evaporated. 

“Lucy?” he called quietly, pausing at the threshold to scan the room. 

The bed was empty.

Peter’s uneasiness formed instantly into a cold knot of fear. 

“Lucy?”

A hiccup answered him and, with a sense of relief, Peter’s eyes found what he had missed before—Lucy huddled in a patch of shadow by the foot of the grand bed, pale nightgown just barely visible. As her face whipped toward him, Peter could make out the tears glistening on it.

“What’s the matter, Lu?” he asked with worry.

“Peter!” she gasped and bolted to him. The little girl buried her face in his nightshirt, mumbling things that Peter couldn’t make out through the fabric.

“Shh, shh… Lucy, you’re freezing.”

He scooped her up—though she was really getting a bit big to be carried—and placed her back on her bed, sitting down next to her.

“Now,” said Peter as he wrapped an arm around his baby sister and pulled her in close, “What is it, princess?” He had been hoping for at least a smile at that, but no luck.

Lucy hiccupped again. “I can’t sleep,” she replied shakily, hand tangling in the sheets, “a-and it’s so dark and… and it… I t-tried to come find you, b-but I couldn’t remember w-which way to go and I got l-lost—”

“Shh, shush, it’s okay Lu, it’s okay.” Peter stroked her comfortingly on the arm. “I’m right here now.”

“W-will you stay with me?”

“Of course.” He didn’t need her big puppy dog eyes to convince him of that. “But you’ve got to go to sleep, alright?”

“M’kay.”

Peter slid down to lay on his back and Lucy curled, cat-like, against her brother’s warm side, head pillowed on his chest. Absentmindedly, he ran one hand over her dark hair.

“Peter?” called Susan’s voice from the doorway.

He started and twisted his head to face her. “Hm?”

“Is… everything alright?” she asked.

“Yeah,” replied Peter, “just couldn’t sleep.” He nodded in Lucy’s direction as he said it, but Susan got the feeling that their little sister wasn’t the only one he was talking about.

“I can’t sleep either,” she confessed with a sigh, moving to perch on Peter’s other side.

“You looked like you were sleeping when I checked on you a few minutes ago.”

“Oh, that was you?” Susan laughed under her breath. “I thought it was one of the fauns or Mrs. Beaver. I didn’t want to worry them.”

Peter gave her a teasing smile. “Well, you did an admirable job.”

She smiled as well and reached over to adjust the covers over Lucy, who had finally dozed off to the gentle rhythm of Peter’s breathing. As she straightened, Peter caught a glimpse of the wall behind her and of Edmund hovering in the still-open doorway. 

He looked like he was glaring at them, brows furrowed and mouth tightly drawn. In reality, he was desperately wishing he could be a part of the group on the bed, but was trying to hide it because he knew that—after the events of the last few days—there was a likely chance he wouldn’t be welcomed.

“What are you doing up?” asked Peter in a voice that was equal parts annoyed and exasperated. He thunked his head against Lucy’s pillow. Was _anyone_ actually sleeping tonight?

“I just heard you walking around,” Edmund answered quietly, “and I could hear your voices. I thought maybe something was wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong, Ed,” said Susan. “Lucy just couldn’t sleep.”

“Oh.”

He tried to force down the jealousy that bloomed at the idea that she’d gone to Peter and Susan instead of himself when his room was closest. Not that they’d ever really gotten along and Peter was _obviously_ her favorite. Lucy didn’t even really _like_ him, he teased her too much… Edmund was still trying to squash away his feelings when Lucy stirred.

Still looking half asleep, she raised her head a fraction of an inch. “Peter?”

“I’m right here, Lu,” he said, pressing her against his side in a protective, one-armed hug.

“Susan?”

“I’m here, too.” She reached over her brother to tuck a strand of Lucy’s hair behind her ear with a mothering hand.

“Ed?”

“Yes?” he replied, stumbling over his feet a little as he hurried to stand by the foot of the bedstead.

Wordlessly, Lucy stretched her hand out to him, and, walking now to the other side of the mattress, Edmund took it.

* * *

The fauns who came the next morning to light the fires in the oldest three Pevensies’ rooms rushed back out again, panicked expressions on every face.

“Gone! They’re gone!” 

They conferred in the hall with each other and then skittered to consult with Mr. Tumnus, who had just tiptoed back out of Lucy’s room. With a smile like a proud parent on his face, he motioned them to enter and to be quiet about it.

All four of the Pevensie siblings were fast asleep in Lucy’s bed. Lucy had her head on Peter’s chest still and his arm was loosely around her back. On his other side was Susan, resting her head against his shoulder. Edmund stretched out on Lucy’s far side, one of his arms flung over her. He was still holding his baby sister’s hand.

The fauns crept silently one by one out of the bedroom and left their four monarchs to slumber cuddled up together. Mr. Tumnus, the last one out, paused for a minute by the door, Lucy’s handkerchief pressed to his lips.

“Thank you,” he whispered finally, though his mere words felt too small.

His thanks were for not only what the Kings and Queens had already done for Narnia, but what they would do; for what they would be in the future just as much for what they were now. 

Because for the moment, they were just Narnia legends asleep in their little sister’s bed.

  
  


_El fin._


End file.
